Only a flowery, elevated park could generate positive aesthetic reviews in the perpetually pungent Meatpacking District.

“I think it’s beautiful, and it smells really good,” said Benjamin Heller, 32, a West Village photographer, as he strolled along New York’s High Line Park, a converted train trestle that stretches a half-mile along Manhattan’s West Side.

“It smells like a meadow. I think that’s the best part of the park.”

After more than a decade in the making, the city’s first high-rise park officially opened for business yesterday, an efflorescent testament to perseverance and improvisation.

Visitors were impressed that, unlike another recently created open-air zone — the trash-strewn Times Square pedestrian mall — High Line Park provides a true respite from the rat race.

“The community wanted an escape from the city, which you don’t get in Times Square,” said Robert Hammond, co-founder of Friends of the High Line, which maintains the city-owned park. “The community wanted it to be quiet and contemplative.”

Brooklynite Aliza Edelman, 37, was contemplating the best spot for a picnic with her two children.

There was a spread near West 17th Street that provided a spectacular view of the Statue of Liberty, and a perch between West 15th and West 16th streets that offered the best view of the Hudson River.

“The park is very urban, and I like the simplicity of it,” Edelman said. “It fits in with the landscape beautifully.”